What's Needed At The Alerus?

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What can be done at the Alerus to make it more of a home until football gets back on campus? fwhenever that will be)

The new video boards were a massive upgrade. They made a huge difference and look great when UND scores and they all light up in unison with green and white.

The concourse needs to be UND'd. The mural along the sidelines and the mural of Danny Freund and co at the main entrance are great, but they need to be replicated in the main concourse. When walking around to grab a beer or some dip n dots you couldn't tell who you were there to watch if not for other people wearing the gear. Each column can have a mural of a former great player with their stats. Sound familiar? It's one of the best features of the Englestad. It would put a stamp of the building and mark the territory. UND pennants or something hanging from the ceiling with years of conference championships and the national championship? Cheap and easy.

Tailgating. There has been some effort put towards tailgating and I realize that without great teams brining great crowds tailgating will never be great, but it can be better. A great tailgate starts things off on the right foot for the team. They walk through an amped up crowd and get pumped to give them their money's worth. As apposed to the instant buzz kill that happens when the players walk through 40 enthusiastic but lonely fans on the way in. Tailgating needs to become an event, hopefully winning will help but some tweaks are in order to take it to the next level.

New speakers in the stadium. The current system sounds like crap. No bass at all. Revamp that with whatever they have in the Englestad and get the Alerus really bumbing on third downs.

Turf. The new surface is great. But. There is still that concrete gap between the stands and the turf..... It's fugly, looks like a joke, and is dangerous to players. A roll of turf is needed to fill those gaps. It will look a million times more legit and also will be 100x safer for players when they score a TD and are trying to stop. I've seen way too many guys sliding on that crap with their cleats. I don't want to wait for a star player to break their wrist for this to be fixed.

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A new entrance video is a must next season. Forget highlights, do something to tie the college to the area.

Also, watching the Patriots game on Saturday- on all third downs they sound the airhorn that is played at the Ralph when a goal is scored. How about trying to do some things to tie the two programs/game experiences together.

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Turf. The new surface is great. But. There is still that concrete gap between the stands and the turf..... It's fugly, looks like a joke, and is dangerous to players. A roll of turf is needed to fill those gaps. It will look a million times more legit and also will be 100x safer for players when they score a TD and are trying to stop. I've seen way too many guys sliding on that crap with their cleats. I don't want to wait for a star player to break their wrist for this to be fixed.

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A new entrance video is a must next season. Forget highlights, do something to tie the college to the area.

Also, watching the Patriots game on Saturday- on all third downs they sound the airhorn that is played at the Ralph when a goal is scored. How about trying to do some things to tie the two programs/game experiences together.

To that point, Ive always thought that the Alerus should play Chelsea Dagger when UND scored.

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To that point, Ive always thought that the Alerus should play Chelsea Dagger when UND scored.

I think both of those ideas are pretty cool. Do the school then after the extra point, right up before the kickoff, so I'm still standing up and ready to do some damage on the back of the seat in front of me.

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The concourse needs to be UND'd. The mural along the sidelines and the mural of Danny Freund and co at the main entrance are great, but they need to be replicated in the main concourse. When walking around to grab a beer or some dip n dots you couldn't tell who you were there to watch if not for other people wearing the gear. Each column can have a mural of a former great player with their stats. Sound familiar? It's one of the best features of the Englestad. It would put a stamp of the building and mark the territory. UND pennants or something hanging from the ceiling with years of conference championships and the national championship? Cheap and easy.

This is probably my biggest gripe about the Alerus Center on game days. There is a big sign outside on the Alerus that says "Home of UND football" but you would hardly notice it when walking in the doors!! If the Alerus want to truly be the home of UND football, they need to step it up. UND football is their #1 tenant. Get murals on the walls. Get the more green and white in the concourses. banners hanging on the walls. All these things would enhance the experience and make going to UND football games an event.

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This is probably my biggest gripe about the Alerus Center on game days. There is a big sign outside on the Alerus that says "Home of UND football" but you would hardly notice it when walking in the doors!! If the Alerus want to truly be the home of UND football, they need to step it up. UND football is their #1 tenant. Get murals on the walls. Get the more green and white in the concourses. banners hanging on the walls. All these things would enhance the experience and make going to UND football games an event.

Absolutely!

#1 thing Alerus should do before next season! It would be inexpensive and effective. Get it done Alerus! Of course, going back to when the turf design was made, the Alerus doesn't actually care about UND football as much as they pretend to.

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UND spent, what, 3 million dollars on the new locker room and team area renovations at the Ralph. Apparently that was mostly private donations, but it would sure be nice if they spread some money over to the football program and others!!

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Sound sucks, the scoreboard are nice but fix the stuff on it. Have out of town scores updated more frequently. Have live stats. Would be nice to have cupholders, but I suppose that would take away from seating since the aisles are very slim as it is. Biggest thing to get people in the building...WIN!!

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Put ceiling tiles in the building to get rid of the fugly exposed ceilings. Tile the ugly concrete floors. Put sheetrock over the fugly tin everywhere. Add more windows everywhere possible. Make a club lounge somewhere for fans during halftime.

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Even if they did UND probably wouldn't spend it updating a city owned facility.

Maybe this bison run will help some alumni open up there pocket books?!

UND could work with the City of Grand Forks to get these things done. I don't think it's asking too much for Kelley and Faison to work with the city to make Alerus Center more UND-esqe.

I am sick and tired of all the excuses as to why we can't do this and we can't do that. The people in positions of power in Grand Forks and at UND need to cut through the red tape and political challenges and do something with regards to making the Alerus Center look more like the home of UND football.

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More than anything, they need to work on their in game production. Hire the Ralph people to do it. Pregame intro sucks and their use of the video board is a huge waste. Agree with the skylights as well.

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UND could work with the City of Grand Forks to get these things done. I don't think it's asking too much for Kelley and Faison to work with the city to make Alerus Center more UND-esqe.

I am sick and tired of all the excuses as to why we can't do this and we can't do that. The people in positions of power in Grand Forks and at UND need to cut through the red tape and political challenges and do something with regards to making the Alerus Center look more like the home of UND football.

I'd prefer that UND used their funds to better the facilities they own, not something that is used 6 times a year. No clue what the lease agreement calls for but it is more on the Alerus/City of Grand Forks to do the majority of these improvements. Those are the people who should be contacted on this, not UND. Agree that it would be easy and a nice touch to do some of the small cosmetic stuff (pictures on the wall). Double edge sword though as it is a city owned building used for multiple purposes.

Pretty sure you can find almost the exact same arguments being made by NDSU fans in Fargo on improvements they'd like to see to the Fargodome. I believe they still have those slick tube TV's in the concourse there or at least did last time I was there.

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I'd prefer that UND used their funds to better the facilities they own, not something that is used 6 times a year. No clue what the lease agreement calls for but it is more on the Alerus/City of Grand Forks to do the majority of these improvements. Those are the people who should be contacted on this, not UND. Agree that it would be easy and a nice touch to do some of the small cosmetic stuff (pictures on the wall). Double edge sword though as it is a city owned building used for multiple purposes.

Pretty sure you can find almost the exact same arguments being made by NDSU fans in Fargo on improvements they'd like to see to the Fargodome. I believe they still have those slick tube TV's in the concourse there or at least did last time I was there.

Are we going to leave the Alerus Center anytime soon? I say no. The various renovation plans I have seen for Memorial Stadium will cost mad money and won't happen the next 10 years, if not longer. UND and Grand Forks are going to be long-term partners in this whether they like it or not, so I think it just makes sense for them to have a solid working relationship going forward.

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Are we going to leave the Alerus Center anytime soon? I say no. The various renovation plans I have seen for Memorial Stadium will cost mad money and won't happen the next 10 years, if not longer. UND and Grand Forks are going to be long-term partners in this whether they like it or not, so I think it just makes sense for them to have a solid working relationship going forward.

UND's lease is up February 2019. We have til the end of the decade to call the Alerus home unless a contract is renewed.

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Are we going to leave the Alerus Center anytime soon? I say no. The various renovation plans I have seen for Memorial Stadium will cost mad money and won't happen the next 10 years, if not longer. UND and Grand Forks are going to be long-term partners in this whether they like it or not, so I think it just makes sense for them to have a solid working relationship going forward.

I believe they do. The Alerus Center paid significantly more for the turf replacement than was required. Even though no one seemed to know how to properly use them, the upgrades to the video boards and scoreboards was above and beyond as well. Hopefully they can get the operator error part cleared up by next season.

Agree that some of the smaller things would be a nice touch for the Alerus Center to do and go a long way in making the building feel a little more friendly.

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Put ceiling tiles in the building to get rid of the fugly exposed ceilings. Tile the ugly concrete floors. Put sheetrock over the fugly tin everywhere. Add more windows everywhere possible. Make a club lounge somewhere for fans during halftime.

This^

The place needs some natural light badly. The rest are good suggestions as well. I just get stuck on how dull it can be in there.